The 2010 Gingerbread Wonderland is on its way to record attendance. Over 2,100 people attended yesterday alone and almost 12,000 voted in the People's Choice Awards over the 8 days. This is a pretty incredible vote of thanks to the wonderful individuals, families and school and scout group who created all these terrific displays.

Thanks to one of yesterday's visitors, Tim McCann, who sent pictures from his visit. Click on the image at right to go to see them all.

Response to this year's Gingerbread Wonderland has been uniformly wonderful. Bright smiles adorn our visitors' faces throughout their visit as they proceed from one great creation to another.

Visitor Ken Hoffman of Morristown took a number of nice photos which he was nice enough to share with us here (click to visit). Be sure to visit soon -- the Gingerbread Wonderland runs through Sunday, December 12th.

The 2010 Gingerbread Wonderland opened last evening for the Members-Only Preview Party which was a resounding success. The Wonderland is now open to the public every day through Sunday, December 12th. More details on times, etc. are available on our Events Page

This year you can see Egyptian pyramids, Hogwart's Academy, Lost Island, the North Pole, woodlands, the Eiffel Tower, Santa in Hot Tub, Santa in Workshop, Santa in his bed, farms, gardens, Stitch, a mill with waterwheel, villages, Neptune's Castle, Yankee Stadium, homes, bedrooms, under the sea, castles, Mt. Olympus, the zoo, boathouses, Pooh and friends, roller coaster, pizza in box, and dozens of other wonderful creations.

As always, the artists included girl scouts, cub scouts, brownies, daisies, school classes, families, adults and kids. Don't miss out on the fun -- stop by and see it all for yourself. By the way, click on one of the images to see lots of pictures from opening night.

New this year is the Gingerbread Wonderland Holiday Craft Show, a great place to shop for hand-crafted gifts.

I was lucky enough to have attended University of Delaware professor Doug Tallamy's excellent lecture, Bringing Nature Home, this afternoon at the Arboretum. Dr. Tallamy spoke about the need to preserve biodiversity and what we individual gardeners can do at home to promote it.

Several weeks ago I got an email from a visitor, William Benjamin, enclosing a couple of nice pictures he took while walking around the Arboretum. My vacation intervened, but on this grey, drizzly day they serve as a good reminder of how pretty the Arboretum is!

Membership in the Friends of the Frelinghuysen Arboretum has always offered many benefits, including reduced prices on most of our programs, subscription to our 5-time a year newsletter, The Arboretum Leaves and many more things, all detailed on our
Membership Page.

Here is a nice reminder of how nice and summery the Arboretum was only a few short weeks ago. Bundle up and come over this weekend to see the final Fall trappings. Perhaps butterflies will be in short supply, but there is still plenty to see.

I got a note from volunteer Phil Dahlen yesterday. Phil maintains our What's in Bloom list throughout the growing season, but the season has come to an end, so yesterday was the last update of the list until Spring.

Thanks, Phil, for the regular updates -- the Arboretum is a big place, full of wonderful flowers, shrubs and trees. You help us keep in touch with what is exciting right now. We look forward to your return along with spring blossoms.